Author's Note: *grins* Thanks for the reviews (even though there aren't that many)! I appreciate your comments!

Title: Love and Flashbacks

Rating: PG

Spoilers: Erm… Possibly.

Summary: Lily and James remember the events that led to their romance.

Disclaimer: As much as I'd love to own Harry Potter and its characters, I don't.

Setting: This story takes place when the Marauders are at Hogwarts.

*** = setting change

*~*= begin flashback

~*~ = end flashback

[…] = time

italics = emphasis

italics = thoughts

~The Village~

"So what do you want to do first?" Remus asked the others.

Sirius was squirming around like a puppy. "I know! I know! I want to go to—"

Koren clamped her hand over his mouth. "Someone else say something, quick!"

"Honeydukes," Charlotte suggested.

Sirius scowled as Koren let go of him. She just smiled sweetly at him and headed in the direction of the sweetshop.

***

[20 minutes later]

The seven friends came out of Honeydukes loaded down with candy.

Sirius said, "Now can we go to—"

"Let's go to the Three Broomsticks!" Lily shouted. She grinned at Koren, who gave her a thumbs-up.

Sirius, defeated once again, gave his girlfriend a dark look. She simply took his arm and led him to the Three Broomsticks.

***

[5 minutes later]

Each of the sixteen-year-olds had a tankard of butterbeer. Sirius had cheered up slightly.

"Do you want to go to the Shrieking Shack next?" Lily asked.

James, Remus, and Peter shared a look while Sirius opened his mouth and got as far as, "I want to go to Z—" before Koren covered his mouth again.

"Where do you want to go? Oh, sorry, I can't hear you," she said.

Sirius gave a muffled groan.

"I don't know if we should go there, Lily. It might be too scary," said Charlotte.

"Oh, Charlotte. Don't be a wimp. Besides, we've got four—er—somewhat strong guys here to protect us."

"Come on, it'll be fine," Lily said. "They say the noises come only at night and only once in a while."

"Okay. If you say so."

Koren removed her hand from Sirius's mouth. He looked at her. "You're evil, Koren. Evil."

She grinned.

***

The group walked to the abandoned old house set a little bit apart from the rest of the village. Remus fell into step beside Charlotte.

"It'll be okay. I promise. Nothing's going to hurt you while we're there," he told her with certainty. He knew nothing was going to happen because he was the one who made the sounds that had earned the old house the recently acquired name the "Shrieking Shack."

She smiled gratefully at him. "Thanks, Remus."

***

[10 minutes later]

The seven teenagers were leaning on the fence, looking up at the supposedly haunted house.

"What kind of spirits do you suppose haunt this place?"

"Very wild ones, I guess," Sirius said cautiously, looking at his fellow Marauders.

Lily spoke up, "I've always wondered about this place. Ever since third year, when we started coming here."

*~*

[3rd year]

"I think it looks exciting," a thirteen-year-old Koren said.

"Well, I think it's creepy," replied Charlotte.

Lily put in, "I think it's both."

"What are you girls up to?" a voice said from behind them.

Lily whirled around to find herself face-to-face with James Potter. "What do you want, Potter?"

"Just wanted to know what you were doing," James replied. "Is that a crime, Evans?"

Lily rolled her eyes. "Go away, Potter. Go bother someone else."

James glanced at Remus, who was staring at the old house. "All right. Let's go, guys." Sirius and Peter waved to the girls as they pushed Remus back the way they had come.

"What was that about?" Koren asked, puzzled.

Lily replied, "I don't know."

Charlotte said, "He looked nervous about something. Almost… afraid, I think."

"Hmm. Well, there's no point in thinking about it anymore."

"Yeah."

~*~

Sirius started whining. "Koren, I want to go to—" She silenced him by putting a finger to his lips. "I know. You want to go to Zonko's. We're going there next, okay?" She dropped her hand.

"Okay," he said, melting the way he always did when he looked into her big blue eyes (AN: Well, that was sappy…).

James made a gagging noise. Sirius pushed him. "Shut up, Prongs." He turned back around to his girlfriend. "Can we go now? Please? Please, please, please?" he asked, sounding very much like a child.

"All right. Just stop whining." The two teenagers set off toward the joke shop.

"Well, that was… odd," Remus remarked.

"I'll say," Lily replied.

"Let's just follow them," Charlotte suggested.

***

Sirius ran into Zonko's Joke Shop and started grabbing things off the shelves.

"Uh, Sirius… Are you sure you're going to use all that?"

"I will. Believe me. I will."

"Okay," Koren said slowly.

James ran in then. "Hey, Padfoot, you started without me!"

"First come, first served, Prongs!"

James began running around too. "Oh! We have to get some of those!"

"And more of these! We're running out."

"And these things!"

"Don't forget that over there!"

Many students who were familiar with the Marauders' little shopping sprees simply stepped out of the way as James and Sirius ran past. A few unfortunate third years who had, of course, never been inside Zonko's got their feet stomped on ("Ow!"; "Sorry!").

Remus started following his friends around, picking up the items they dropped and putting them in Peter's waiting arms.

Koren and Charlotte, who had never been in the joke shop at the same time as the Marauders stared at the boys in shock. Lily had seen this before and stood near the doorway looking amused.

*~*

[3rd year]

Lily had just been to the Three Broomsticks and was now wandering around Hogsmeade, looking for something to do. Charlotte and Koren had decided to stay in Dervish and Banges for a while and were going to meet up with her later. Lily noticed the four Gryffindor boys in her year outside Zonko's Joke Shop, discussing their shopping strategy.

"Okay, here's what we do," James announced. He, Sirius, Remus, and Peter were in a huddle (much like you'd see in Muggle sports). "Sirius and I will grab anything we see that we like."

Sirius took over the conversation. "Then you, Remus, will follow us around and pick up anything we drop, since we're bound to drop something."

James started speaking again. "Peter, you will carry the stuff Remus picks up. Okay, any questions?"

"No."

"No."

"Well, yes, but it has absolutely nothing to do with what we're doing now."

"Sirius."

"Okay, okay. No, no questions."

"All right. Ready, set, go!"

The four boys ran into the building. Lily followed for lack of anything better to do, and she also wanted to see their plan in action.

***

The two dark-haired boys were zooming around the store in a frenzy. Remus was trying to follow both of them at the same time, but of course, that didn't work. Peter was catching all the things Remus threw behind him.

By now, several of the customers had stopped shopping and were just watching the four thirteen-year-old boys getting almost everything in the store.

Lily dodged Sirius as he came by and took a look around. This place is so cool. I can see why they like this place, Lily thought.

By now, Remus had decided that what he had been doing wasn't working. He changed the plan and chased first James, then when he passed Sirius, he would chase him, and then back to James, etc.

James's glasses got a little fogged up and he couldn't really see where he was going. He ran into Lily, and she fell to the floor.

"Ah! Potter!" she exclaimed indignantly when she saw who had bumped into her. Remus came to a halt behind his friend and asked, "Whoa, what happened?"

"Potter crashed into me yet again."

James was wiping his glasses on his robes. "What? Oh. Sorry, Evans."

"It's okay. I'm fine. I think."

Sirius and Peter appeared behind Remus. "I think we got everything we're gonna need."

"Come on, let's go pay."

James (whose family was very rich) paid for most of the products they bought. The cashier commented that that was the best sale he'd made in a long time.

~*~

Koren turned to look at her best friend. "Uh, Lily? Do you know what this is about?"

"They kinda have a system."

"Oh…"

Charlotte remarked, "Well, it does seem to be working well…"

Lily laughed.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Author's Note: I have no idea why I wrote that… Review? Please?